UNITED STATES: An ugly coalition

Issue 

An ugly coalition

The week before the April 16-17 demonstrations against the WTO and IMF in Washington, the AFL-CIO leaders had their own rallies in Washington. One, called by the Teamsters union (part of the AFL-CIO), underscored an ugly new coalition that is forming around the AFL-CIO's demand for protectionism.

Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa Jr invited an interesting collection of people to address his rally. They were: liberal Democrat Representative Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, conservative Republican Representative Chris Smith of New Jersey, ultra-rightist Pat Buchanan and Vermont representative Bernie Saunders, a self-styled socialist who has joined the anti-China tirades.

Members of the crowd punctuated the speakers' denunciations of China with shouts of "Commie bastards!"

The anti-Semitic and racist bigot Buchanan, who is running for the Reform Party's presidential nomination, said that if he were president, he'd make Hoffa the US's trade representative, which makes sense, since both are right-wing "America firsters".

With "ecologist" Pelosi, "socialist" Saunders, and proto-fascist Buchanan all saying the same thing, are the AFL-CIO leaders building a red-green-brown alliance around their reactionary protectionist China-bashing?

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